More on Yes

I am often asked “just what is the Culture of Yes?” Although the ‘culture’ continues to evolve, it is still the belief system as I set out to define in my address on my first day as Superintendent:

It is the “culture of yes”, we have and will continue to foster — one that embraces new ideas and new ways to look at learning and organize learning; a “culture of yes” that supports innovation and creativity for both learners and teachers, knowing this is how we will continue to evolve. It is a “culture of yes” that touches on the passions we entered the profession with, and that may have sometimes been lost along the way, but hopefully, found again.

Yes is an opportunity and yes is an obligation. The closer we get to people who are confronting the resistance on their way to making a ruckus, the more they let us in, the greater our obligation is to focus on the yes.

There will always be a surplus of people eager to criticize, nitpick or recommend caution. Your job, at least right now, is to reinforce the power of the yes.

Seth’s blog brings to mind a story I recently heard regarding innovation and education in England. The government proposed to their education system they could apply to have any rules, laws, etc. suspended in the name of innovation (there is currently a similar initiative in BC). Those who wanted to ‘not comply’ had to make application to the government with the appropriate rationale. The project’s one major finding was over 80% of applications received were unnecessary. Why? Because the rules that hundreds of educators had applied to have suspended didn’t actually exist. I think this general challenge is also true in British Columbia — we believe we are more restricted by laws, rules and legislation than we actually are (possibly by rules that don’t exist, as well) thereby justifying the belief that innovation is not possible and we continue to accept the Status Quo.

In education, more than any other profession, we need to continue to promote YES; “yes” for the teacher embracing formative assessment discouraged by the parent who claims this is not how they were assessed in school; “yes” for the school that cannot re-imagine their programs in their current, highly successful system; “yes” for the people to take the risk knowing the road to change is long and challenging.

7 Responses

“Yes” opens doors and has a power, as you’ve said, to foster innovation and a positive culture.

It does seem to me that, at times, we live in a world whole-heartedly embracing yes and overlooking the occasional need to say no or not now.

I thought about this yesterday after catching an interview which Jian Ghomeshi did with Cissy Houston, Whitney’s Mom. It was a painful interview with more pauses and awkward silenced than a free-flowing share of information and insight.

Mrs. Houston kept on saying how Whitney’s plea was always, “Mama, I just want to sing.” And in fact it was the celebrity lifestyle, not the singing, which was her ultimate demise.

And I wonder if the scenario would have been
different if she’d said no when fame came knocking at the door?

Funny that entropy and “the culture of yes” do not seem to involve any effort towards improving a flawed spelling system, which makes learning to read and write a slow and arduous process. Why the disconnect between the so-called gurus and the plain reality that the system is disabled not the kids? Why are they not fixing their own chaotic systems before telling others to fix their own? The gall!

Although this idea is not new, as Twain, Shaw, Franklin, Websters, Carnegie, and even president Roosevelt thought it was worth advancing, yet –in spite of all the evidence– a reform of the English spelling system is rarely mentioned as a way to solve many of the literacy issues faced by many Commonwealth learners in many countries. Sure, we can throw a lot of money at the issue (hire more teachers,…) and spend more time on literacy to compensate and mask the issue, but the issue remains. An interesting comparison between the 2 linguistic communities of Finland on PISA tests reveals that the Finnish-speaking kids outperform their Swedish-speaking counterparts in a significant way. At 15, most kids will have mastered many of the irregularities in the language, just like in English, and so the Swedish-speaking kids, even though they belong to a higher socio-economic group, do cope, but without these 2 major elements (testing at 15 and family money/education), they cannot beat the Finnish-speakers. Indeed, the evidence is incontrovertible that an opaque spelling system does delay -and/or impair– learning, reading acquisition, and spelling abilities (which is not that critical considering the gizmos that people have). When are leaders going to fix the spelling system or should we make it MORE irregular? The culture of “YES” and efficiency is ubiquitous in the business world and this flawed system would never survive the rigour of competition! Can you name one system that has not improved in 300 years? There is only one! Food for thoughts! Actions speak louder than words, though!